You are invited to watch the game on our big screen. We expect to present it in HD. There will be no admission charge. Doors will open at 4:30pm. The game starts shortly after 5:00. Pizza and hot dogs will be served in addition to our regular menu. Please be advised that no food or beverages may be brought into the theater. There will be no re-entry once the game begins.

Our tenth anniversary concert celebrates the spirit of music and community that the Twin Cities Women’s Choir has offered the region for the past decade. You’ll enjoy world music from the traditions of Africa and Native America. You’ll hear us perform traditional Latin and Madrigal music. In our usual style, this concert offers moving choral lyrics that celebrate music, community and the spirit of women. We’ll also throw in contemporary favorites such as Seasons of Love from Rent; Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, When I’m Sixty-Four, and the beautiful You Are the New Day, from the King’s Singers choral series.

I’ll be in the front row, so look for me! I’ll be easy to pick out, as I’m one of the only chips in the cookie, if you know what I mean. So I’m biased, because I’m in the choir. But really, if you like choral stuff, you’ll like the concert.

The TCWC is a non-auditioned choir, so if you go to the concert and think that singing with us might be fun (or even if you don’t go to the concert), join us Wednesday Feb 7 and Wednesday Feb 14 from 7p-9p for open rehearsals. If you can carry a tune, you can join, even if you’ve never sung in a choir before. If you’re not sure what part you sing, we’ll help you figure it out.

Hope to see you!

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Local jazz and reggae musician Wain McFarlane needs a new kidney, and Cyndi Lauper, Lifehouse, Mint Condition, and Soul Asylum have come to the rescue with a benefit concert on March 10th. Some friends of mine lived next door to Wain in Northeast, and he’s a fun guy! Eric has more of the story at his blog:

A few years back, Wain’s brother was Cyndi Lauper’s tour manager, and she became friendly with the family. Wain tells me he once saw her at a party in a gorilla costume. A musician he mentored toured with her. When she performed at the Minnesota State Fair in 2004, she let Wain sing “Time After Time” with her, letting him ad lib a verse dedicated to his late sister. She brought him back out on stage for “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” which Wain and her bass player spun into an impromptu reggae jam.

On Saturday, March 10, 2007 Cyndi Lauper, Lifehouse, Mint Condition and Soul Asylum will ROCK the Myth in Maplewood, MN to save the life of Wain McFarlane! Wain is a musician and friend dying from Kidney Disease. He needs not only a new kidney, but the financial resources to pay for all of the aftercare. So, March 10th it is. The big day to raise the money, throw the concert and sing for Wain. Together with the great state of Minnesota and its wealth of musical fans and talent, everyone is hoping to raise the roof on the Myth and enough money to benefit Wain’s healthcare & living expenses for at least the next 365 days.

Strange that I should come across this because I was just reading over at Metroblogging Detroit about McDonald’s and how they haven’t followed through on their pledge to switch to trans fat-free cooking oil. Too bad it took a ban on trans fat in New York City, which has 250 McDonald’s stores, to spur the company to action. McDonald’s claims it was a product quality issue.

McDonald’s said in 2002 that it would switch to cooking oils with less than 2 percent trans fat at U.S. locations. It hadn’t been able to meet its goal before the new formulation because the taste and texture of fries declined when they were cooked in alternative oils….

Cargill, the largest U.S. agricultural company, worked with McDonald’s for several years to create a revised oil that didn’t change the foods’ taste.

Actually, having worked at another food company here in town, I believe that it could take that long. I’m sure the NYC trans fat ban imposed a deadline they weren’t anticipating having to meet, though.

I wonder if our proximity to Cargill HQ will mean that we’ll get the trans fat-free stuff sooner rather than later?

In my building at work, someone takes the Star Tribune every morning and makes copies of the crosswords and sudoku and leaves them in the lunchroom for everyone to work on. As I was waiting to get at the coffee machine, I saw a copy that happened to have an Al Sicherman column on it.

The guy refers to himself in the third person, as “Uncle Al.” That’s both annoying and creepy. I felt like he was subconciously inviting me to come sit on his knee, little girl. He strikes me as the kind of guy that my grandpa would love, though.

Granted, I wasn’t reading him in the first place. But I’m certainly not going to start now.

I’ll be in Uptown tonight at the Uptown Bar to see Action Frank in their premiere live performance. Okay, it’s my friend John’s band, and this is their first show. I’m not sure what time they’ll go on, but they follow Tepetricy, who go on at 9:30. It’s a 21+ show, and it’s free. Yeah, it’s cold, but it’s Uptown, it’s Tuesday, and you need to hear some good music.

But I want to take it one step further by becoming a Zero Hero. Minneapolis’ solid waste and recycling website reminds us that the average household sends one ton of solid waste to the landfill every year. Instead of throwing out my dead cat, why not stuff it and set it on the front porch? I’ll reuse those yogurt tubs. I’ll donate the fax machine to a nonprofit. I’ll find a creative way to reuse my gun!

The New York Times Elaine Glusac stayed at our fancy new hotel, and only had one remark about our fair city that could almost be construed as a flyover dig. I had expected more, honestly. Something about the tundra, perhaps?

Rather than cloning the original art-filled Chambers boutique hotel in New York, the Midwestern outpost, which opened in September, strikes an independent profile in a gallerylike compound fashioned from two neighboring pre-1910 brick low-rise office buildings with a a courtyard-cum-lounge in between.

And then we get some praise: “Minneapolis’s emerging stature as the artiest town on the prairie.” And a little more: “Art-focused lodgings are poised to appeal to travelers in search of design-forward Minneapolis.”

Instead of emerging, I think we’ve been there for a while. We know we kick ass in the arts, and have for quite some time. But know we have a fancy new hotel to prove it. I do wonder which other Midwestern cities are competing for ‘artiest’ title. We know it ain’t Des Moines.